Photo: U.S. Marine Corps’ rotary wing escort during Helicopter Air-to-Air Refueling ops

Taken during the 2012 Kaneohe Bay Airshow at Marine Corps Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, on Sept. 30, 2012, the following picture shows a U. S. Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter, belonging to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron (HMLA) 367 providing security as two CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters with Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 463, Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) perform a HAAR (Helicopter Air-to-Air Refueling) demonstration from a KC-130 Hercules.

Image credit: U.S. Marine Corps

HAAR ops foresee five kind of rend-vous (RV) between the chopper and the tanker, with an initial vertical separation of 500 feet.

In four of them (“Bravo”, “Delta”, “Golf” and “Hotel” types of RV)  the tanker approaches the receivers from the astern position and the subsequent overtake and rejoin of the receivers in refueler’s left wing take place after visual contact has been established. RV “Echo” is the only one in which the receiver maneuvers to rejoin with the tanker.

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